Liss was dedicated to children as mother, foster parent and educator

Judith Foster Liss encouraged her students, foster children and children to find their passion.

Judith Foster Liss encouraged her students, foster children and children to find their passion.

Photo: Courtesy Photo

Photo: Courtesy Photo

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Judith Foster Liss encouraged her students, foster children and children to find their passion.

Judith Foster Liss encouraged her students, foster children and children to find their passion.

Photo: Courtesy Photo

Liss was dedicated to children as mother, foster parent and educator

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A lifelong educator who also fostered numerous children over the years, Judith Foster Liss was adept at providing love and direction.

“My mother always tried to make sure that everyone she knew and worked with and supported knew that they could do anything,” her daughter Melanie Anne Liss said. “Her biggest gift was to help them find their passion and encourage them along the way.”

Working with gifted and talented students, Liss recognized that “everybody has something that sparks them, and sometimes you have to work really hard to find that,” her daughter said.

Liss died May 2 at 75.

Raised in a military family, Liss grew up in various locations stateside and overseas, graduating from high school in Columbus, Georgia.

Attending what is now Georgia College, Liss graduated with degrees in art and education in the mid-1960s.

She met her future husband, an Army officer, in Columbus. He was completing jump training at nearby Fort Benning.

“She was walking downtown and he made some provocative comments to her, and she was not happy,” their daughter said. Unbeknownst to Liss, her father, who was training the airborne course, had “invited him home for lunch after church one Sunday.”

Marrying in 1966, the couple raised their children in a variety of locations, including Germany and Italy, where they began taking in foster children, mostly young babies.

Assigned to Fort Sam Houston after a second assignment in Germany, the family began fostering again, even as Liss continued to teach and later moved into administration in the Harlandale Independent School District.

“She … taught … and then started coordinating the gifted and talented program,” her daughter said. Liss later “rewrote the (Harlandale ISD) curriculum to help develop a more progressive program.”

At home, Liss and the family raised many children from infancy until age 3 or 4. They were always heartbroken when it came time for a child leave their care.

“We were never going to do it again, every time,” her daughter said. “But then there was a phone call in the middle of the night, and we could never say no.”

Continuing to foster for more than 20 years, Liss and her husband helped hundreds of children.

“They were an extraordinary couple and … family who reached out and took care of some of our most vulnerable children,” said Judge Peter Sakai, who worked with the family during his time as a Bexar County associate judge.